The Smiling Madame Beudet
One of the first feminist movies, The Smiling Madame Beudet is the
story of an intelligent woman trapped in a loveless marriage. Her
husband is used to playing a stupid practical joke in which he puts
an empty revolver to his head and threatens to shoot himself. One day,
while the husband is away, she puts bullets in the revolver. However,
she is stricken with remorse and tries to retrieve the bullets the
next morning. Her husband gets to the revolver first only this time he
points the revolver at her. The movie is quite notable for use of
cinematic techniques like dissolves and superimpositions giving it a
surrealist touch whereupon extraordinary things spring out of the ordinary.
Last modified: Sun Jun 7 13:07:21 PDT